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White House VIP missing from 'West Wing Week'

Guess who doesn't appear in the latest edition of "West Wing Week," a video series the White House cranks out to promote the work of President Barack Obama and his administration?

Yep, the seniormost of senior White House officials: President Barack Obama.

The reason for his startling absence: a lack of official presidential events in a week the president largely spent campaigning and preparing for Wednesday's night's debate with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Due to the Hatch Act, the federally funded "West Wing Week" isn't allowed to feature political events like fundraisers, election rallies and debates (not that the White House would necessarily be promoting a lot of last week's match-up). In most weeks, that restriction isn't a big deal. But, last week, there were apparently no official events on Obama's schedule suitable to be sliced-and-diced by the White House videomakers.

With little grist for the mill last week, the White House video team turned its attention to innovative financial and energy-related smartphone apps and a look at the selection of the White House Christmas tree in North Carolina.

A White House spokesman says it's not the first time Obama has been left out of his own White House's rundown of "everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." Even though the video feature regularly goes on the road with him across the country and around the world, there have been "a few" holiday and vacation periods where the president didn't make the final cut, the aide said.

There should be some usable footage of Obama in the coming week, though. He's scheduled to announce the designation of a new national monument to late labor leader Cesar Chavez in California on Monday.